I suggest that anyone who truly loves old movies or just wants to experience them at their best seek out revival theaters and art houses. Southern California has several, so I would think other metropolitan areas do as well.
There’s a world of difference between seeing “Safety Last” on your television and seeing it in a room full of people laughing and cheering. (And because these sorts of shows tend to attract diehard fans, you’re less likely to be annoyed by cell phones and such than at your averge cinema).
This place shows silent features regularly, with short subjects and live accompaniment. I saw a film there last year, and the organist had played during the film’s original release!
I really think what is going to carry from previous generations to future generations will be hit and miss; sure, LOTS of people will have seen Monty Python movies or Casablanca, but things like “Raise High Ye Roofbeams, Carpenters” and IT Happened One NIght will probably be passed over.
I really think it’s hit or miss about the quality. I, personally, think Seconds (with Rock Hudson) is a much better “cerebral” movie than, say, Vertigo. (Although that is an opinion). Eh. It’s hit or miss. I think we’ll remember Eminem in thirty years but not the White Stripes (which is kind of irritating as the White Stripes are much better) just like people remember Sly and the Family Stone and not Gil-Scott Heron (his spoken word “songs”, not necessarily his poetry).
Me, personally, I"ve seen Citizen Kane, Casablanca, It Happened One Night, a baker’s buttload of Charlie Chaplain shorts (I got a boxed set for Xmas one year), numerous Laurel and Hardy’s, read everything Salinger published in bookform, seen quite a few older Woody Allen movies, etc. etc. and I’m only 21.
Yet I haven’t seen any Marx Bros. movies, most of Bogarts resume, Gone with the Wind, etc.
As I said, it’s going to be hit or miss what carries over.
Here’s some movie recommendations for you young 'uns, divided into decades up to the 80’s… I figure most of you got the 90’s covered.
Up to 1930
Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
The General
Nosferatu
1930’s
Freaks
M
Public Enemy
The Thin Man
The Wizard of Oz
1940’s
Arsenic and Old Lace
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Thief of Bagdad
The Third Man
1950’s
Bad Day at Black Rock
Cyrano De Bergerac
Forbidden Planet
Harvey
North By NorthWest
Paths of Glory
Thunder Road
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1960’s
Bedazzled
Cool Hand Luke
Elmer Gantry
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Magnificent Seven (see also The Seven Samauri)
The Manchurian Candidate
The President’s Analyst
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Wild Bunch
1970’s
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather (1 and 2)
The Three Musketeers (and The Four Musketeers)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Return of the Pink Panther
Rollerball
Sleeper
Sorcerer
Taxi Driver
1980’s
Blade Runner
Brazil
Do the Right Thing
Life of Brian
Repo Man
The Stunt Man
Swimming to Cambodia
The Thing
Wings of Desire
Are you kidding? Find a college. Any college. In some dorm or fraternity house (or even a sorority house) on that campus, there is a group of students gathered together around a a tv, watching Monty Python (probably Holy Grail). Of those students watching the movie, at least one and possibly more can quote the entire damn thing, and will do so, at length, at the slightest provocation. Whether or not you want them to.